Starfield - How To Have More Than One Active Follower

You might be asking if it's possible to have a second active follower in Starfield. Although you can meet and recruit various crew members and companions, you'd have to be mindful of who you'd bring as, typically, the game allows just one follower by your side at most. However, our guide discusses a method that allows you to have another NPC tag along, so you can have a three-person squad. But there is a catch.

How to have more than one active follower in Starfield

Let's be clear about this: you cannot officially have more than one active follower in Starfield. When you talk to a companion and ask them to join you, that makes them your active follower. Anyone who's been tagging along previously will be dismissed, and they'll return to their assigned ship/outpost or their original location.

However, there's still a bug or exploit that lets you bring another NPC with you, and it's something that veterans of Bethesda RPGs should be familiar with. To do this, you need to find an NPC that tags along for a quest, and you must avoid finishing that quest.

NPCs that are not viable candidates

Before we talk about the NPC that's the perfect candidate for this method, let's discuss a few others that aren't as viable:

• Tahir Vala - You'll meet Tahir Vala as part of a side quest called The Kindness of Strangers on New Atlantis. It's given to you by the leader of the House of the Enlightened chapter in New Atlantis. Although Tahir does follow you around, this is limited to The Well area in the city. He'll stop following once you go topside.
• Constellation companions - Characters like Sarah, Sam, Barrett, and Andreja are mandatory for certain sections of the game (i.e. depending on the main quest or their own companion quests). However, they will become the active follower automatically at those stages, which removes the workaround for having a third person tag along.
• Walter Stroud - Constellation's financier also has a quest called All That Money Can Buy, and he does join temporarily. Unfortunately, because this is a main quest, you'll need to complete it eventually, unless you want to delay campaign progression further.

The best option: Emma Wilcox

One of the best options if you want to have more than one active follower in Starfield is none other than Emma Wilcox. You'll meet her if you attempt to join the Freestar Collective Rangers. Here's a quick summary:

• The faction's headquarters is in Akila in the Cheyenne system. Once you're there, you'll have to rescue people who have been taken hostage in a bank. The marshal will find your actions impressive, and he'll ask you to speak with Emma.
• Talk to Emma to progress the Deputized quest, where she'll ask you to pick various tasks from the mission board. This includes eliminating a raider captain on a planet or destroy a pirate's ship.
• Once finished, you'll have to do a quest called Where Hope is Built. It requires you to visit a farm in Montara Luna so you can eliminate ruffians. Emma will join you for this objective.

You can go ahead and take out the hostiles as part of the quest, but you must avoid completing it. For instance, if you're told to go back to the Freestar Collective's HQ in Akila City, just explore other regions. As long as you don't finish the quest, Emma will stay with you as the third person in your squad. Although she doesn't pack a lot of firepower (i.e. she mostly strikes enemies in melee), she can serve as a distraction during combat engagements, plus it's just cool to see two NPC allies by your side, Mass Effect-style.

Emma is just one example of an NPC that can become an extra active follower in Starfield. Just bear in mind that you won't be able to progress further in the Freestar Collective's faction arc unless you finish the relevant mission.